Automatic carton forming and stacking machine



F. W. ADSIT March 31, 1936.

AUTOMATIC CARTON FORMING AND STACKING MACHINE Filed Dec. 8, 1932 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 March 31, 1936. F, w, ADSIT 2,035,857

AUTOMATIC CARTON FORMING AND STACKING MACHINE Filed Dec. 8, 1932 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 March 31, 1936. w AD$1T 2,035,857

AUTOMATIC CARTON FORMYNG AND STACKING MACHINE Filed Dec. 8, 1932 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 30 manner.

Patented Mar. 31,-1936 i 2,035,857

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE AUTOMATIC CARTON FORMING AND STACKING MACHINE Frank W. Adsit, St. Paul, Minn., assignor to Rotary Carton. Machine Company, Minneapolis, Minn., a corporation of Minnesota Application December 8, 1932, Serial No. 646,240 15 Claims. (CI. 93-58) This invention relates to an improvement in for accomplishing these results because the maautomatic stripping and stacking mechanism chine may travel at a highrate of speed and must particularly adapted for use with my printing and be kept clear at all times. cutting press where-intricate portions must be It isa purpose of my invention to provide a separated after the cutting and which are ordisorting and stacking means for conveying the narily difiicult to remove. This mechanism is for blanks from the printing, cutting and stripping the purpose of automatically stripping or picking mechanisms, and dropping the' blanks into piles, waste stock from between blanks which have. sorting one type of blank from another. This been automatically cut from a, continuous sheet is accomplished by tripping the conveyor at more of material, and for sorting and stacking these than one point in the longitudinal direction of 10 blanks after the cutting and stripping operation. travel. A sheet of stock material may be wide It is an object of my invention to provide as enough to pe it t e o m t of three simple and eflective means of stripping Waste blanks transversely of the sheet. Each of these stock from blanks cut from a sheet of material. blanks may be printed difierently if desired, as

This stripping operation takes place immediately each blank will fall in a different pileas soon as 15 after the-cutting operation,-and acts to remove released by the conveyor. If desired, alternate all pieces of waste stock from within or between transverse rows of two or three cartons each may the various blanks. For the purpose of illustrabe prin n y, and separated y ri tion, I have shown my stripping mechanism in ping alternate transverse rows of blanks at differcombination with a rotary printing and cutting ent points along the longitudinal travel of the con- 20 machine designed for the formation of cartons veyor. In this manner a large number. of blanks and the like. The carton blanks are cut from a of difierent design may be printed simultaneously, continuous sheet of material in such a manner and sorted so that each type of blank will be piled that very little waste is provided. However, sepa at ysmall pieces of waste remain between the various It is an added feature of my invention that the 25 cartons after the cutting operation and must be various elements of the sorting and stackin removed. My stripping mechanism operates in mechanism are readily adjustableto accommodate an efficient manner to'remove even the smallest a great number of conditions and to accommodate of these pieces of waste stock in an efiective variously shaped carto s an the like- Accordingly, my machine may be quickly regulated to fit It is also an object of my invention to provide various required operations and to perform the a stripping mechanism which will function die in a desirable mannerv rectly in combination with the printing and cut- Th se objects, to et er wi h other urpose and ting press. The sheet of material from. which novel features of the invention will be more clearthe blanks are formed may in this manner be ly and fully set forth in the following specificaprinted by rotary printing cylinders, on both sides tion and claims.

if desirable, may be cut by rotary cutting cylin- In the drawings forming a part of this specifiders after leaving the printing cylinders, and cation: a

are stripped or picked out by stripping cylinders Figure 1 is a side view'of a p nt and 40 after leavingthe cutting rolls, all of which operting press in which my stripping mechanism and 0 ations are automatic. My sorting and stacking sorting and stacking mechanism is incorporated.

- mechanism automatically discharges the blanks i u e 2 is a d ag amma c Side elevation View, in neat piles ready for use. In this manner theshowing the relationship between the cutting entire carton blank may be formed in one conrolls, the Stripping l the conveyor, and the tinuous automatic operation. sorting and stacking mechanism.

It is an object of my invention to provide a Figure 3 is a, diagrammatic side view of the means of removing the waste stock from the stripstripping mechanism. ping rolls after these rolls have removed the Figure 4 is a front elevation view of the stripwaste from the blanks. This waste removing ping mechanism illustrated in Figure 3.

. means is so designed that there is no danger oi Figure 5 is a sheet of material divided into 50 having the waste stock jam or clog the stripping blanks, showing the small amount of stock wasted rolls. The waste is guided away'from the stripin the formation of the carton blanks.

per rolls and permitted to drop freely away from- Figure 6 illustrates spaced rows of blanks as the mechanism. This is very important owing they would appear passing through the sorting to the automatic action of my rotary machine. mechanism.

Figure 7 is a diagrammatic plan view of the conveyor means embodying the sorting andstacking mechanism.

Figure 8 isa perspective view of the gripping mechanism on the conveyor for gripping the blanks during the time they are conveyed by the conveyor.

Figure 9 is a side elevation view of the grip- .ping mechanism in closed position gripping a carton blank.

Figure 10 is a side elevation view of the gri ping mechanism in open position.

Figure 11 is a crosssectional view of a detail portion of the stacking mechanism.

The rotary press A is provided with inking and printing units III circumferentially adjustable about the cylinders II and I2. Each of the units I0 may print in a different color, so that the carton blanks may be printed in several colorsin a single process. If desired, the units III may be adjusted about the lower cylinder I2, in order The sheet B passes through the cutting and along the surface of the fingers scoring rollers I6 and H to the stripping and picking rollers I8 and I9. These stripping rollers act to engage the waste portions of stock within and between the various blanks, and to remove this waste. The upper roller I8 merely contacts with the top of the carton, holding the same in proper position when the scrap or waste is being removed.

The surface of the upper roller I8 is grooved to accommodate a pin or prong 20 formed on the lower roller I3. This groove 22 is centrally disposed m the engaging surface of the roller II.

The engaging surface 23 extends only'the necessary length to hold. the blanks while the scrap or waste is being removed, and the roller I3 is preferably cut away to a smaller diameter where this engagement with the blank is not necessary.

to prevent any danger of marring the printing or the surface of the blank.

The lower roller I9 is provided with one or more prongs 20 depending on the size. and shape of the waste stock to be removed thereby. The

prongs 20 are slightly hook shaped, andact to hook through the waste stock andcarry it away from the blanks. The circumference of the roller. I9 is preferably the length of the carton, so tha each prong operates at a certain point where necessary. As the waste or scrap portions 24 are small, a very definite relationship is maintained between the cutting rollers and the stripping mechanism.

A means is provided for removing the waste stock from the prongs 20 0f the stripping mechanism. This means consists of an arm 25 having a pair of oifset fingers 26 extending therefrom.- These fingers 26 extend into proximity with the roller I9, straddling the prong 23. As the prong 20'p'asses between the ends of the fingets 26., these fingers scrape off any scrap carried by. this prong. The scrap is 25 and drop into a suitable receptacle. If one piece of waste jams into the groove 21 between the fingers 26, the next waste portion 24 acts to either release it, force it farther down in the slot 21, or drop it -of the body portion; The

through a'block is pivotally between the block 45 and sition. The mounting on the shaft 32 permits the.

permitted to slide entirely through the slot. In any case, the scrap will be removed from the prong 20, and will fall clear from the fingers 2s. The ofiset formation of these fingers act to guide the scrap away from the arm 25. Lips 28 act to extend the groove 21 beyond the offset connecting portion of the fingers 26, so that any scrap extending partially into the groove will be guided past this connecting portion. r

From the stripping rollers I8 and iii, the carton blanks C are carried by belts 29 to the conveyor D. The conveyor D is travelling at a greater rate of speed thanis the sheet B in the printing press A, accordingly each transverse row of carton blanks C is carried swiftly by the conveyor D, tending to separate the rows one from another slightly. After each transverse row of blanks C- is gripped by suitable means on the conveyor, the increased speed of the conveyor gradually separates the row of cartons gripped from the following transverse row until it in turn is gripped. This provides an opportunity for the grip ing means to operate between subsequent rows of cartons which otherwise would be closely adjacent'one another, being formed from a continuous sheet. p

The conveyor D is formed of two or more chains orbelts 30, .one positioned' on each side thereof. At intervals throughout the length of each chain, oppositely disposed bearings are mounted to accommodate the ends of shafts 32 extending between these chains 30. Angie members 33 are secured to the chains 30 extending along one side of, and over, the shafts 32. One side of each of these angle members is cut away centrally throughout the greater portion of the length of the member, to accommodate the gripping members 34.

The gripping members 34 fit over a shaft 32. Each gripping member comprises a bifurcated body portion 35 which is transversely grooved to fit over the side of the angle member 33 which has not been cut away. Set screws 36athrough the body portion and adapted to be tightened against the angle member 33 hold the gripping member in any adjusted position along the shaft 32. A collar 31 provided with a gripping finger 38 is interposed between the bifurcated sides 39 collar 31 is keyed to the shaft 32, the key being held in place by the bifurcated sides 39. A keyway 40 extending through. the length of the shaft 32 permits the gripping member 34 to slide along the shaft 32.

Adjacent one end of each shaft 32 is secured a short arm' 42. This arm 42 ispivotally connected to the rod 43 by means of the yoke end 44'- formed on the rod 43. The rod 43 extends vertex of: a V-shaped bracket 46 on the angle member 33. A compression spring is interposed the yoke end 44 of the rod 43. As the shaft 32 is rotated, the spring 41 is compressed until the arm 42 passes center poof the collar3I-bearing the grippin finger 38 shaft to rotate through but a limited movement. The spring 41 holds the gripper finger 38 in either extreme open ,or closed position at all times when it is not being rotated from one position to another. 7 Each shaft is provided with a trip 48. This trip is secured to a collar 49 secured against turning upon the shaft 32. The trip 48, is angularly shaped, having one arm'5ll' extending inwardly from the shaft 32 whenthe gripping finmounted near thesition. The gripper 5'! previously to the tripping of ger is in closed position as illustrated'ln Figure 9, and having another arm 52 which extends outwardly from the shaft 32 when the gripping finger is in open position, 10. When the gripping finger 38 is in closed or gripping position, the arm is in the. path of a tripping roller 53 and the arm 52 is rotated out of the path of its tripping roller 54. When the gripping finger 38'is in open position, the arm 52 is in position to be engaged by the tripping roller 54 and the arm 50 is rotated out of engaging poclosing trip roller 54 is positioned adjacent the feeding belts 29. conveyor chains 3il'move over the sprockets 55 in the direction of the arrow until a shaft 32 carrying a number of gripping members 34 is positioned adjacent the feeding belts, the arm 52 on the trip 48 of that particular shaft 32 engages the tripping roller 54. This rotates the shaft 32 past center position, and the spring 4! acts to close the gripping fingers 38 against the angle member 33, gripping a carton blank 0 which has been fed into position 'by the belts 29 therebetween. In a similar manner, each shaft 32 is rotated successively upon reaching. gripping position by the trip 48.

The tripping roller 53 is positioned in the path of the trips 48 near the end of the conveyor, and acts to open the gripping fingers 38 to release the carton blanks C. Each of the trips 48 is operated by the tripping roller 53, unless a shaft has been previously rotated to open the gripping fingers 38 andto rotate the arm 58 out of engaging position.- v If it is desired to trip some of the shafts to release-a part of the carton blanks C at another point, it is only necessary to provide an additional trip 56 on the shafts to be tripped, and to provide a tripping roller 51 at any point along the length of the conveyor. The trip 56 must be equipped with an arm 58 which is similar to the arm 50, but does not require an arm similar to the arm 52. The trips 56 are mounted on the desired shafts 32, out of line'with the trips 48 and the tripping rollers 53 and 5t, and are only'operated by the tripping roller 51. If the blanks are printed so that dissimilar carton blanks C appear in adjacent transverse rows, it is only necessary to providea trip 56 on alternate shafts 32, as is indicated diagrammatically in Figure 7 of the drawings, and alternate transverse rows of carton blanks C will be tripped by the tripping roller the remaining transverse rows by the tripping roller 53. carton blanks C are thus sorted. In a similar manner, additional trips may be added to cause every third carton to fall in a third pile.

In order to cause the gripping fingers 38 to grip the carton blanks C securely, I score or roughen the edge of the angle member 33 against which the gripping fingers 38 clamp the blanks. This roughened edge may drawings. If it is desired, a V-shaped groove 59 may be formed in the angle member 33, as illus trated in Figure .11, forming sharp engaging edges which do not permit the carton to slip.

The slightly hook-shaped or curved prongs 20 are sufficiently small to remove even a minute portion of scrap or waste stock. The construction of the stripping mechanism is such that the waste stock is permitted to fall freely from the same. The conveying mechanism acts in an efficient manner to carry the blanks into any desired position, and acts to sort and stack the as illustrated in Figure blanks free of waste be seen in Figure 8 of the.

- blank and Dihng the blanks to separate one type of carton from another.

In accordance with the patent statutes, I have described the principles of operation of my stripping and stacking mechanism, and while I have endeavored to set forth the best embodiment thereof, I desire to have it understood that this is only illustrative of a means of carryingout my invention, and that obvious changes may be made within the scope of the following claims without departing from the spirit of the invention.

I claim:

1. The combination, an automatic rotary printing and cutting machine adapted to print and cut'blanks of a desired shape automatically from a continuous sheet including, a stripping picker adapted to automatically remove the stock between and about the died-out blanks, and a carrier having means for depositing the died-out stock in sorted piles.

pick and strip the wastestock from the sheet embossing machine cartons, meansfor tripping said engaging means at a pre-determined point to stack the cartons into one or more piles at different intervals of the travel of said carrier, and secondary safety tripping means to insure the dropping of the cartons from the carrier.

5. An-endless carrier for machines for making cartons and the like including, carton engaging means adapted to engage the individual cartons as they come from the carton machine after they have been stripped of waste stock, trip means for dropping the cartons at pre-determined points in a manner to permit the cartons to be stacked in different piles, and safety trip means to insure the dropping of the cartons from the carrier to prevent cartons from being carried back to the receiving end thereof.

6. The method of making cartons by continuous operation at high speed consisting in moving a continuous sheet and impressing the same during movement with a decorative surface, then die-cutting and scoring into individual flat edge to edge and side by side containers of irregular outline, then strip picking the waste stock from the died-out blanks, and then engaging each died-out blanks in one or more piles.

7. A rotary scrap stripping device for carton and the like machines including, a pair of rotating members between which the carton and the stock from which it is cut are adapted to pass, means for setting said rotary members in a manner to aline with the scrap stock between" and about the died-out cartons, said rotary members including a relatively short contacting surface on one of the same to engage with the stock and carton surfa e at a point where the scrap is adapted to be stripped therefrom, and a pickmeans for dieing out articles into 'ing member carried by the other of said rotary members adapted to coincide with the contacting surface on the other rotary member in rotation of said rotary members to pick and strip the scrap stock from between and about the carton blanks.

8. A stripping device for carton and the like machines including, rotary members between which the stock and cartons are adapted to pass, means for rotating said members, a pair of arcuate lugs formed on one of said members spaced apart to form a slot therebetween, a picking and stripping point carried by the other of said members adapted to rotate through said slot to pick the scrap stock from between and about the cartons and stock passing between said rotary members, and a stripper shield associated with said rotary member carrying .said picking and stripping point between which said point is adapted to rotate to strip the same of any scrap stock adhering to said point in the rotation thereof.

9. A rotary scrap stripping and picking means including, a pair of rotatable members between which the scrap stock is adapted to pass, a short projecting supporting surface on one of said rotary members for holding the scrap stock in close proximity to the other of said rotary members, a picking stripping point on the other of said rotary members adapted to pick and strip the scrap stock at the moment the scrap stock is engaged by said projecting supporting surface, and means for automatically stripping the scrap stock from said stripping and picking point.

10. A machine having means for cutting a series of different pre-determined shaped articles each comprising a series of transversely aligned units from a sheet fed into said machine, and

means for automatically sorting and stacking each of the series of the cut out shapes into respective individual piles.

11. A rotary printing and cutting machine adapted to operate at high speed including, a carrier having gripping fingers adapted to move faster than the speed of said printing and cutting means to separate the cut edges of the articles formed on said machine,thus drawing the ar ticles from the delivery end of saidmachine apart to permit engagement by the gripping fingers.

12. A rotary printing and cutting machine, cutting a series of different died-out articles, a rotary stripping means for separating the scrap from the died-out articles, a carrier having means for drawing the articles away from said printing, cutting and stripping means and including an automatic tripping means for stacking each of the difierent died-out articles inrespective separate piles.

13. A stripping device including a par: of cooperating rollers, a recess in one roller, a curved pointed projection on the other roller adapted to extend into said recess, and means for rotating said rollers in unison.

14. A stripping device including, a pair of cooperating rollers, one of said rollers being smaller than the other, a cam-like projection on said one roller, a recess in said cam-like projection, and a picking means on the other roller extendable into said recess.

15. A conveyor for printed sheets including a transversely extending bar, means supporting said bar to travel in an'endless path, gripper 'means supported in proximity to said bar, and

engageable with said bar to grip the sheets therebetween, and aV-shaped groove extending longitudinally on said bar against which said sheets are clamped by said grippers.

FRANK W. ADSIT- 

